




'Co. * » 1 1 




K*-' °- 











J^^^^ 

"y ^ 












,-.*^ 













<^ ^*fSK'. •^< 









SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS 



VI 



Wild Life and Nature Conservation in the 
Eastern States 



C 



,-r C ti 




ISSUED BY 

THE WILD GARDENS OF ACADIA 
BAR HARBOR, MAINE 



Monoerraph 



t=. \k) 




First glimpse of the ocean on the path to Huguenot Head in the Sieur de ^lonts national 

park upon the coast of Maine 



. 3 1921 



SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS 



VI 



James Bryce 

Kerner von 
]\Iarilaun 
Univ. of 
Vienna 

A. F. Schimper 
Univ. of 
Bonn 

C. S. Sargent 

U. S. Forestry 
Report 



A. R. Wallace 



WILD LIFE AND NATURE CONSERVATION 
IN THE EASTERN STATES. 

The .\])pala(']iiaii region of America eoiitainecl 
until lately the finest temperate-zone forest, and 
the richest in species, in the world. It ranged 
nnbrokenly from the northern bonndary of the 
L^nited States to Alabama and the Red River 
region of Lonisiana, and it stretched from the 
Atlantic lowlands to the prairies. Now, compara- 
tively little of this forest is left in an nnaltered 
state ; its area has shrnnk to a fraction of what it 
was, and is still shrinking rapidly. 

It is a forest of immense antiquity. The earliest 
fossil record of the In-oad-leaved, deeidnoiis-leaved 
type of tree fonnd in the world is fonnd in deep- 
placed rock-strata of the southern Appalachians, 
and the evidence is strong that never since that 
immeasurably far-off time has the long succession 
of its trees l)een broken, south of the limit of ice- 
.sheet invasion. It is unique today in species 
no longer to be found elsewhere, such as the 
Tulip Tree, of which a dozen other species once 
dwelt within it; the Magnolias — now elsewhere 
found in eastern Asia only; the Tupelo, the 
Liquidamber, Sassafras, and others. Anciently 
as rich as it in these and other forms, the whole 
continent of Euroi)e at the present time can 
scarcely show one-half its wealth in genera and 
species. 




Giant INlapk-lrcc in reunsylvaiiia 



L. Fernald 



S. Shaler 
C. Russell 
P. Lesley 



haiies Eliot 



R. Wallace 



P. Sell impel 



utch and 
English Colo- 
nial Reports 



These species, forever irreplaceable if lost, 
are — like many of our native wild-flowers, birds 
and animals whose home the forest was — seriously 
endangered under existing conditions ; and eastern 
America stands in the way today of losing swiftly, 
in a single human lifetime, its long inlieritance 
of wealth and beauty in the natural world, in trees, 
in flowering shrul)s and plants, in birds and other 
forms of animal life. 

Again, the Atlantic coast lands on the one liand 
and the Mississippi Valley, with its branches, on 
the other, are regions destined to be permanent 
and crowded homes of industry and trade — homes 
of men, that is, on a vast scale. Between them, 
and everywhere within easy reach from them, lie 
the Appalachian mountain ranges, of great 
natural beauty and refreshing quality in extensive 
tracts, the ancient home of these magnificent for- 
ests, the source of streams, rich in delightful un- 
dergrowth and faunal life. This region of woods 
and mountains, terminating in a magnificently 
watered region in the nortli, presents possibilities 
of incalculable importance to the crowded city 
]iopulations of the East, the Soutli, and the great 
Central Plains. To save it to the utmost in beauty 
and refreshing quality is imperative, in view of 
the great coming need, and it is yet more impera- 
tive to save to those who will come after us the 
forest's wealth of tree and plant species, of bird 
and other animal life. For these are things, 
]irecious in every sense, that once lost are lost for- 
ever, and not a few are lost already. 

"What is now proposed is this— founded partly 
on a scheme urged years ago by Dutch and Eng- 
lish naturalists for the preservation of the native 
forest and its associated life in their eastern col- 



A. R. Wallace 



Cliaiies Eliot 



National Assn. 
Audubon 
Societies 



James Bryce 



onies and partly on the knowledge that biologists 
have gained in recent years concerning bird and 
other wild life conservation: To establish a 
systematic cliain of reserves, large or small as 
opportunity serves but selected always with well- 
stncliecl reference to the preservation and favor- 
able exhibit of the native forest and other floras, 
the bird and other faunas of their region ; and to 
choose these areas, also, so as to make of each, so 
for as possible, a scenic reservation and a park, 
contributing to health and pleasure and the de- 
velopment of a love for nature. 

Each such reserve would tlius contribute — 
variously, according to its character — toward 
these general ends: (1) the preservation of the 
native forest flora, its trees and underplants; (2) 
the preservation of bird and other forms of ani- 
mal life, natively inhabiting the forest; (3) op- 
portunity for scientific observation and study of 
these both, existing naturally under their original 
conditions; (4) conservation, in the public inter- 
est, of beautiful and inspiring landscapes; (5) 
the establishment of a means of study for plant- 
ers, landscape architects and foresters who have 
work to plan and carry out in the surrounding 
region. 

In certain places, one or the other of these 
ol)jects would be dominant — as bird sanctuaries 
along the shore from Cape Cod southward, or 
scenic reservations in tracts of exce])tionally 
striking scenery, sucli as mountain heights and 
river gorges or beautiful coast landscapes. 

To the development of landscape work along 
broad and natural lines— work soundly based on 
ji-iture— nothing that could else be done, no train- 

7 




c3 



y. 



o 



American In- 
stitute of 
Architects 



S. Minot 



M. L. Fernald 



J. S. Biologi- 
cal Survey 



ing in schools or sindj of foreign examples im- 
possible of reproduction here, would contribute 
so liberally as this. In exhibiting to architects 
and landscape architects, or men charged with 
the development of public parks, the whole range 
of native material within their reach, a work of 
widest influence would be accomplished, and one 
that would aid greatly in the creation of a national 
landscape art. 

For the botanist and entomologist such reserves, 
grouped in a linked series readily and quickly 
traversed, would not only provide living collec- 
tions of the rare plant and insect species of each 
region, difficult to study otherwise, but would 
also save from destruction many an interesting 
life form else certain to become extinct as the 
woods are cut away, the lands denuded and burnt 
over. 

For the preservation of the bird and other wild 
life of the Continent, migratory as the former 
largely is, absolute sanctuaries, well grouped and 
not too far apart, have already proved themselves 
beyond dispute essential, in the presence of a 
time where human forethought and prompt ac- 
tion only can avert the swift destructiveness of 
human agencies more ruinous biologically and 
wider spread than the destructive agencies of any 
previous age, glacial or other, the rocks or later 

clays reveal. 

George B. Dorr. 



w^-^ 



^\^\ 




Ancient sea-cliff on Mount Desert Island, raised by coastal elevation and deeply 

sunk in woods 



8 ^1/ 









%-/ .*^&'". %.** .-Sfe'v \/ .-^^M" ^^..^^ •■ 



.V o 














o_ * 






'^o^ 




'oK 



*' <^^ ^ 'V''--"' '^^ 

















♦ «? »^, -^ 

>^ . 1 * 




V **^% q 










v^<5>- 



V-^' 



y ,<^'^. "^j^^'A 













